An angry man threatened to smash up a courtroom amid an expletive-filled tirade.

Extra security staff were drafted in after 6ft 8inch tall Shaun Porritt, 47, made his threat from the dock at Teesside Crown Court staff and lawyers.

Porritt, who was appearing for sentence for growing cannabis at his home in Middlesbrough, roared repeatedly that he was going to go to jail.

Before the judge entered court Porritt protested that he had been unable to carry out his work as a scaffolder because he was on bail waiting for his court date.

But then calming down he told Judge Tony Briggs at Tuesday’s hearing that he was representing himself without a lawyer, and he did not want one.

Porritt said: “I’m guilty, Your Honour, that’s all I can say”.

Prosecutor Rachel Masters said that Porritt was in bed when police raided his house at midnight on July 3 last year on an unrelated matter.

There was a noise from behind an upstairs wall, and when officers pulled open a crack they discovered 18 cannabis plants with associated growing equipment, and the electricity meter had been by-passed.

Porritt said that he had paid somebody £100 to divert the meter.

He said that he was growing the cannabis for his own use, and he challenged a police drug expert’s assessment that it would have been worth between £4,760 and £6,720.

Miss Masters said that there was no evidence that he had sold any.

He had 28 previous convictions for 66 offences, including one for possession of cannabis.